The big picture: Qualcomm no doubt took a big financial hit when it lost Apple as a customer for the new iPhones. According to Qualcomm, Apple used its technology to help Intel improve its own modems so it could switch to them as a supplier. Will the legal system agree?

In its latest filing, Qualcomm has asked a judge to add the new accusations to an existing lawsuit scheduled to go to trial in April 2019.

According to CNBC, Qualcomm doesn’t provide direct evidence of this but references back-and-forth discussions between Apple and Intel engineers as well as Apple’s source code development history.

Qualcomm's general counsel, Donald Rosenberg, told CNBC that "unlawful use of Qualcomm's valuable trade secrets to try to help a competitor catch up irreparably harms us and must not be allowed to continue."

The battle escalated massively when Qualcomm countersued Apple claiming that they had stolen Qualcomm trade secrets and given them to Intel so that they can switch modem suppliers. Since then, Intel has made leaps and bounds and become the sole provider of Apple’s iPhone modems.

As reported by the San Diego Tribune, the companies will be bringing all their major allegations into one new trial beginning April 15th, in the San Diego Federal Court. Qualcomm originally requested a February trial [...]

This new information is in direct opposition to previous reports from Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf himself, who said on CNBC last week that Apple and Qualcomm are “on the doorstep of a resolution.”
While we’ll have to wait a long time to see if Apple’s switch to Intel has any implications for consumers [...] the wait for this legal battle to end will probably be even longer.

January 15, 2019 Reporting by Douglas Busvine; Editing by Keith Weir
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - A patent lawsuit filed by Qualcomm Inc against Apple Inc was thrown out by a German court on Tuesday, in a reversal for the U.S. chipmaker after it won a recent court ban on the sale of some iPhones in the country.

But now according to Reuters, Apple and Qualcomm have reached an agreement whereby Apple can resume selling the two iPhone models again.

The only caveat is that Apple can only sell older versions of the iPhone handsets that utilise Qualcomm chips.Bitter fight
Despite this agreement, the two sides look set to continue their legal tussle. Last October Qualcomm said that Apple owed it $7bn (£5.5bn) in patent royalty payments for the use in its chip in iPhones.
Prior to that, Qualcomm accused Apple of stealing its technology in order to share it with rival chip makers, including Intel.